Chapter 5
“Defeat!” flashed onto the screen as he watched his workers getting massacred in the background. Minjun exhaled deeply and slouched back in his chair. Playing against AI-trained mechanical opponents was usually taxing, but this game felt like he had battled a giant. Interestingly, even though every second had taxed him to the fullest extent of his abilities, the game didn’t feel quite like he was fighting the famous SK neural net. He barely noticed that the 9.5 million credits that had been added to his account were not from SK Telecom, but from TitanEX1. His strategies had been good. His play had been creative and his mechanics had been very sound. What hope could he possibly have against such a force? Was creativity enough to even keep kibohn like himself on the scene anymore? Ugh.
Minjun pushed the thoughts to the back of his head and sank into his chair to watch one of the kibohn games to pass the rest of the night. Both players were circuit rookies, and Minjun could sense a lot of promise in their play. The kibohn matches were best-of-5, so Minjun had a lot of time to feel out some of the new players. He’d be interested to see how he fared against them later if his accepted his contract renewal. He was surprised that his current manager hadn’t emailed him yet with the details of a new contract. It usually only took a few minutes for their systems to analyse his play and provide a recommendation of whether or not to re-sign a player.
After a warm shower had helped to restore some stability in his legs, Minjun returned to his computer to catch the exciting end to game 4 between the two rookies. It had been a 45-minute epic match that ended with massive air armies performing tight, tactical maneuvers and incredible play as both players squeezes maximum value out of their armies. A tactical nuke blast from one side led to a scramble to evacuate and then subsequently claim the high-ground position. Finally, a three-pronged attack with a surprise flank led to the final victory. Minjun was impressed and opened up his email to send the rookie a congratulatory note. It was important to show the new, young players that they were supported in the scene. The kibohn were all brothers in a way, no matter who their managers were, or who was fighting to climb to the number one spot in the circuit.
Minjun’s notifications were flashing - there was already a message waiting in his inbox. It was from conjoinmain@titanex1.com. Minjun felt his heart leap into his chest.
Mr. Lee,
Thank you for your efforts in your recent match (game S11g1986TvZ884) against the SK Telecom team. Your open circuit contract allows the SK Telecom artificial intelligence entity to share your data with our team here at TitanEX1. We take our esports data collection efforts very seriously, and the actions you took in the above-referenced game will certainly prove useful as our artificial intelligence program parses and integrates the results. Your play on the circuit for the past few years has been monitored, and TitanEX1 is thankful for your contributions to the circuit.
After speaking to your managers, we have received permission to open negotiations with you regarding an 18b.4 Player Enhancement and AI Connectivity Agreement (colloquially known as a “gaeseon” contract). Our legal team has already produced a contract with standard language and they will be in touch with your managers should you choose to move forward with negotiations.
Please reply directly to this email to indicate your interest in this agreement with TitanEX1. We look forward to working with you.
Regards,
TitanEX1 Talent Acquisition Team